Daw Aung San Suu Kyi – She Made It!

My heart goes out to this remarkable lady who holds the hopes and dreams for a population that has a rich history of accomplishment and culture. Burma has endured political changes for over 13,000 years and still survives, but in a deplorable state of suppression. Mental and physical freedoms are on the cusp of change again after centuries of manipulation by invaders and occupiers. Aung San Suu Kyi holds the hope Burmese have been waiting for.

YANGON, April 1 (Xinhua) — Aung San Suu Kyi, chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD), has won Myanmar’s parliamentary by-elections and her party’s other candidates also swept almost all parliamentary seats, announced the NLD headquarters Sunday night.

Nobel laureate expected to take office for first time after landmark poll that could see end to 50 years of military rule.

The streets of Rangoon echoed with cheers on Sunday after unofficial results indicated Aung San Suu Kyi had won a parliamentary seat in a landmark election that could see the Nobel laureate and former political prisoner take public office for the first time.

The victory, if confirmed, would mark a major milestone in the Southeast Asian nation, where the military has ruled almost exclusively for a half-century and where a new reform-minded government is seeking legitimacy and a lifting of Western sanctions.

Suu Kyi’s results were among the first announced; shortly after polls closed, her party had claimed that Suu Kyi was ahead with 65 percent of the vote in 82 of her constituency’s 129 polling stations. The party had staff and volunteers spread throughout the vast rice-farming district, who were calling in preliminary results by phone to their headquarters in Yangon.

But her candidacy has resurrected hope among Myanmar’s downtrodden masses, who have grown up for generations under strict military rule. If Suu Kyi takes office as expected, it would symbolize a giant leap toward national reconciliation.

“She may not be able to do anything at this stage,” said one voter, Go Khehtay, who cast his ballot for Suu Kyi at Wah Thin Kha, one of the dirt-poor villages in the rural constituency south of Yangon that she is vying to represent. “But one day, I believe she’ll be able to bring real change.”